Problem reinstalling vista

[caillin.deas]

Ok, here's my problem. I have a brand new dell inspiron laptop that came with vista. Everything was working fine untill I got a serious virus. My only option....reinstall vista. Sounds easy, right? Not so easy!

Put in the disk that came with the laptop and started the reinstallation process. All was going fine, it got as far as 'completing installation' then....nothing. A black screen and a cursor, that's it, for hours. I have since tried to reinstall a number of times to no avail.

I have reformatted the partitions and again, tried to reinstall...nada!! Zip...zilch!!! I have NO idea what's going wrong or what to do. I'm also a bit miffed as to why I never get asked for the varification code.

Any help is extremely appreciated, I'm going a bit mental!!

[unidentified]

why I never get asked for the varification code.

Seems to me that it is a pirated version of windows vista. Do you have another genuine Windows cd to find out whether it is a problem of that cd itself?

[opaper]

Seems to me that it is a pirated version of windows vista

lol he telling that it has come with the laptop

Put in the disk that came with the laptop and started the reinstallation process.

,so how could it be a pirated
I think there something wrong with your laptop, it is dead just guessing
and the cd is not pirated right

[caillin.deas]

... the cd is not pirated right

No, the CD is not pirated unless Dell are trying to cut corners. Someone told me that Dells have a hidden partition and that I need to go into that and the os should be there...or something along those lines!!!

[EINSTEIN_007]

Check this link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838

[ruslan40]

Well, first, it doesn't matter if Windows is pirated or not. It should still install regardless of this factor.

The only thing I could suggest, is, if you said you recovering from a serious virus, is a low level format. That would wipe out the entire drive, stripping the virus of any possibility to exist.

However, before you do that, the problem might not be here at all.
Try running memtest86 first, to see if your laptop came with defective memory, as that might be causing the windows setup to freeze.
Just because Vista was already pre-installed on your computer, doesn't mean it was installed the same way you are trying to do it. Computer manufacturers just clone their hard drives, and therefore this problem might not have been evident until now.

So first, try memtest86. Run it for a few hours (my suggestion would be 5-6). If any errors come up, you found the problem.

Also, try checking your BIOS (CMOS) settings. A problem with Windows installation OFTEN has its roots here.

Hope this helps.